On The Road with the Bitcoin Bus: The Bit Mom’s Journal (Part 1)

Catherine Bleish on her family’s “Uncoinventional Bitcoin Bus Tour” across the USA. The self-styled “Blush Family” - John and Catherine Bleish and their two children traveled from Philadelphia to Texas using only cryptocurrency for payments.

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Catherine Bleish, MPA (@thebitmom) on her family’s “Uncoinventional Bitcoin Bus Tour” across the USA. The self-styled “Blush Family” - John Bush, Catherine Bleish and their two children traveled from Philadelphia to Texas using only cryptocurrency for payments.

Back on the road

Over the past 10 months, our family has traveled from coast to coast using bitcoin only. We spent over six weeks in 2014 driving in our family minivan, touring the country in an effort to grow and support the bitcoin ecosystem. Our “Uncoinventional” journeys received fabulous mainstream media attention, which allowed us to introduce new people to the cryptocurrency. We were also able to work closely with bitcoin merchants and service providers to work out kinks in the user experience.

— The Blush Family visits Cheap Air headquarters in Calabasas, California

Sure, there were some stressful moments, but overall our adventures in bitcoin travel were empowering, inspiring and a whole lot of fun. In fact, we grew to really appreciate life on bitcoin. Transactions were instant, no more waiting for a check to cash or a credit card payment to deposit. We could spend bitcoin as fast as it came in, which is important when you are a family on the go.

A few months ago I posted a question on Facebook asking whether any other families in my circle had lived in an RV either full- or part-time. We were looking for an overall lifestyle change and felt that an RV could allow us to continue our bitcoin travel adventures, while also making a return to our Sovereign Living homestead lifestyle that we lost just over one year ago.

Unschooling

The Facebook thread took on a life of its own. Our friends were very supportive of the idea, and at one point someone mentioned the Unschool Bus. The Halldorson Family of New Hampshire lived in the Unschool Bus for three years while they traveled the country promoting the philosophy of unschooling. Unschooling is a child-led education model. It is peer to peer and it is absent of a centralized curriculum. This allows each child to follow their own passions.

Our family also happens to practice unschooling. In fact, my goal as “The Bit Mom” is to introduce the unschooling movement to Bitcoin, and the crypto community to unschooling. After the conversation moved to private message, the Halldorsons offered the bus to us under the condition that, when we are done using it, we gift it to a new family, or return it to the them.

This blessing changed our lives immediately. We decided to call it “The Bitcoin Bus” and to pick it up after the snow melted this spring. Our family happened to be negotiating the partnership of and eventual purchase of Brave New Books in Austin, Texas and the bus seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring the book store with us on our travels.

The truth is our family suffered a cloud of depression after we lost our farm. Knowing the bus was in our future gave us hope and a rally point. My children watched Unschool Bus youtube videos on repeat and John and I began weeding out our belongings so we could transition to a smaller, more Bitcoin-centric lifestyle.

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